August 2017, Jazz on the Tube brought Havana jazz educator Camilo Moreira to New York City and the Bronx to experience US jazz and meet his Latin jazz “uncles” and “cousins” in the U.S. first hand for the first time. (Camilo has been up before but always with heavy work loads that didn’t permit him to do any of his own explorations.)
Author: Vladimir Platov
Russia’s special military operation to localize neo-fascist activities in Ukraine continues to receive more and more documentary evidence of the criminal plans and activities of the current government in Kiev, sponsored by Washington, as well in as the USA itself.
Philip Agee was a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who turned into one of the agency’s most vocal critics, and who exposed the inner workings of Unites States regime change and destablizations operations all over the world. During his nearly four decades in the intelligence game, Agee became disillusioned with his work for the agency, and later went on to publish numerous books including “Inside the Company: CIA Diary” (1975) which infuriated US officials after identifying some 250 officers, front companies and foreign agents working for the CIA. Agee passed away in Havana, Cuba in 2008. During his activist career, Agee inspired a new wave of publications including Covert Action Information Bulletin, as well as numerous films detailing the clandestine exploits of the American deep state.
CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND — You have likely not heard of them, but Creative Associates International (CAI) is one of the largest and most powerful non-governmental organizations operating anywhere in the world. A pillar of soft U.S. power, the group has been an architect in privatizing the Iraqi education system, designed messenger apps meant to overthrow the government of Cuba, served as a front group for the infamous Blackwater mercenary force (now rebranded as Academi), and liaised with Contra death squads in Nicaragua. As such, it has functioned as “both as an instrument of foreign policy and as a manifestation of a broader imperial project,” in the words of Professor Kenneth Saltman of the University of Illinois, Chicago.
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18 September 2019 — Black Agenda Report
The history of liberated Angola, like the history of the world, cannot be told by humanity’s oppressors.
What I want to do here is something very simple. I want to explain how I began to search for Agostinho Neto. I also want to explain the perspective that shapes this search.[i]
14 June 2019 — FAIR
Reuters (5/22/19) attributes the idea that US sanctions are causing a health crisis in Venezuela to Venezuelan Health Minister Carlos Alvarado.
I emailed Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters on May 22 about her article, “Venezuela Turns to Russia, Cuba, China in Health Crisis” (5/22/19). Her article depicted the impact of US sanctions as an allegation that Venezuelan government officials are alone in making. The article stated:
The opposition blames [medical shortages] on economic incompetence and corruption by the leftist movement in power for two decades, but [President Nicolás] Maduro says US economic sanctions are the cause.
14 April 2019 — Internationalist 360°
In Venezuelan domestic politics, the paradox of the debate on Venezuelan sovereignty between Chavismo and the opposition has been present for years.
31 January 2019 — Moon of Alabama
The Trump administration has launched a large political project to remake several states in Latin America. The Wall Street Journal headlines:
U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America
The Trump administration’s broader aim is to gain leverage over Cuba and curb recent inroads in the region by Russia, Iran and China
17 January 2019 — Independent Media Institute
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addresses international observers at the presidential palace in Caracas. (Ariana Cubillos / AP)
Last Thursday—on January 10—Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president of Venezuela. “I tell the people,” Maduro said, “this presidential sash is yours. The power of this sash is yours. It does not belong to the oligarchy or to imperialism. It belongs to the sovereign people of Venezuela.”
These two terms—oligarchy and imperialism—define the problems faced by Maduro’s new government.
11 October 2018 — NEO
On the 22nd of October 1962 the US 2nd Fleet began the blockade of Cuba, an action that immediately threatened the world with nuclear war and annihilation. Those of us old enough to remember President Kennedy’s statement on live television will never forget the fear we all felt as the images of mushroom clouds swept across the TV screens and air raid sirens began their haunting screams as we were told to “duck and cover.”
14 July 2018 — williambowles.info
Muy amigo Tonxti sent me this, 30+ Latin music videos he compiled. Beautiful music. Knock yourselves out!
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Pedrito Martinez Group – Que Palo (Live… |
5 December 2016 — Media Lens
In the wake of Brexit and Trump, ‘mainstream’ media have done the formerly unthinkable by focusing on media bias. The intensity of focus has been such that the Oxford Dictionaries have announced that ‘post-truth’ is their ‘Word of the Year 2016’.
‘Post-truth’ refers to ‘circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. Continue reading
7 April 2014 — The Anti-Empire Report
Is there anyone out there who still believes that Barack Obama, when he’s speaking about American foreign policy, is capable of being anything like an honest man? In a March 26 talk in Belgium to “European youth”, the president fed his audience one falsehood, half-truth, blatant omission, or hypocrisy after another. If George W. Bush had made some of these statements, Obama supporters would not hesitate to shake their head, roll their eyes, or smirk. Here’s a sample:
15 December 2013 — Media Diversified
One noticeable absence from Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was the former President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. Arguably, had he not been murdered at the instigation of the West in 2011, it is likely that Gaddafi would have been honoured with an opportunity to commemorate his comrade. Indeed, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he remained loyal to his former Cold War allies, and openly referred to Colonel Gaddafi as the “brother leader” who was a “close friend of South Africa”. Continue reading
7 November 2013 — The Anti-Empire Report
The New York Times (November 2) ran a long article based on NSA documents released by Edward Snowden. One of the lines that most caught my attention concerned “Sigint” – Signals intelligence, the term used for electronic intercepts. The document stated: Continue reading
17 October 2013 — Zero Anthropology
Today marks the 60th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech, given in his defense during his trial following the unsuccessful guerrilla attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26 of that year.
The complete speech, which was transcribed after the fact entirely from memory, is available here in English and aquí en Castellano, and below I am highlighting certain extracts which I think are still critically relevant today.
30 September 2013 — The Ecosocialist
We had not yet destabilised the climate and trounced other planetary ecological boundaries back in 1876 when Frederick Engels wrote these passages in his unfinished The part played by labour in the transition from ape to man. But it is clear that back then Engels had established a biophilous ethic, or in his words: Continue reading
17 August 2013 — Open Democracy
For those of us living in a land of economic austerity and political atrophy, seeing a country demonstrate that there is an alternative remains an indispensible component of our long-term struggle to rejuvenate our society.
9 July 2013 — williambowles.info
WikiLeaks trial opens with leaked video of US helicopter attack
CTV News
FORT MEADE, Md. — Lawyers for a U.S. Army soldier who gave thousands of classified documents to the secrets-spilling website WikiLeaks opened their defence at his trial Monday with leaked video of a helicopter attack in Baghdad — footage that …
24 June 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation
The CIA and the NSA (the US National Security Agency) whistleblower Edward Snowden (who temporarily had found refuge in Hong Kong and now [is someplace else]) has demonstrated once more the global reach of US electronic surveillance which, no doubt, is a kind of criminal activity. He looked really deep into what the NSA does and was terrified by the things he found out. So the man is on his way looking for a safe shelter to continue the revelations…
The New Dark Age 